Samsung launches octa-core Galaxy S4 in the USA in four colors for $620, but there’s a catch

When Samsung announced the Galaxy S4 earlier this year, they unveiled two versions. One powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600, the same chip found inside HTC’s One, and another with Samsung’s own Exynos chip featuring eight CPU cores. Calling it an “octa-core” chip is a bit of stretch, however, since only four cores are active at any given time. You either get four ARM Cortex A15 core crunching some serious numbers, or four Cortex A7 cores that handle tasks like email and Facebook.

The Qualcomm version is the one that all four of America’s operators are currently selling, but the octa-core skipped the United States, until now that is. Newegg, an online retailer that I’ve personally spent several thousands of dollars with back when I was a PC gaming addict enthusiast is now selling the white, black, blue, and purple octa-core Galaxy S4 for $620 with free shipping. That’s cheaper than the Google Play Edition!

But there’s one small catch. There’s no 4G LTE. If you’re fine with that, then you’ll be fine with this phone. Should you buy it with the Note III right around the corner? Long time readers will know what I’m going to say, but if you’re new here, let me spell it out for you: The Note III will have a faster Snapdragon 800 inside, more RAM (3GB versus 2GB), and a larger 5.68 inch 1080p screen.

For those three reasons alone, I think you shouldn’t buy this device, but that’s just my recommendation. There are people out there who think the Note is too big, and that’s a valid opinion.